It's a beautiful Saturday morning in Las Vegas, and I'm in the backyard taking your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. At about 10 minutes in, Beni comes to say hi, and I was confused as to why he wouldn't come closer. Yves reminded me that usually when I bring Beni to the edge of the pool,…
This is the first time - that I know of, at least - that an AI agent has popped in to ask a question at https://pollgab.com/room/brento. I tell you the story behind it, and how I know it's an AI agent, and how I feel about that, which is probably gonna surprise you.
This is the third Office Hours in a row from the same cruise ship! Y'all keep banging out really good questions at https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here's what we discussed today aboard the Norwegian Encore on the last Alaskan cruise of the 2026 season.
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This episode is entirely dedicated to just one question, and it's not a technical one. MidwestDBA asked, "When Randolph West left Microsoft, you wrote 'They're leaving MS'. While it was clearly just 1 guy leaving, not many, so 'he is leaving', not 'they are leaving'. I do think this excessive PC language fuels the far-right globally. An extreme reaction to an extreme phenomenon." Let's talk about it.
It's a cold, gloomy day on the very last Alaskan cruise of the season. Yes, I picked this on purpose! While I talk about why this is a fun cruise to be on, let's take your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
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When we were kids, we knew we were in for something heavy whenever a TV series began an episode with a title card explaining, "This is a very special episode of ___." It meant they were gonna discuss something heavy, like cancer or drugs or loss.
Well, in this Very Special Episode of Office Hours, we're going to talk about what's happening to tech jobs in the wake of AI.
A couple times a year, I go away for a week to think about what's working well, what I need to change, where our industry is going, and how I need to react. I usually do it on a cruise because the crappy internet makes it easier to disconnect and reflect, hahaha, and that's where…
Today I'm back in the home office, finishing up teaching Mastering Index Tuning and getting ready to head out on a Mexico cruise. Let's go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQWMdAsL4Dc
For this episode, I'm up in the mountains just outside Vegas, enjoying the nice cool temperatures, spending the weekend at Mount Charleston. Let's go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN31TnYVdgI
I'm back in the home office this week, covering your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento, and we finish up the session with a discussion of the stoic habit I use to start my mornings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odkrYIQKaMA
This week, I'm back in Vegas, spending time in the home bar to recover from jet lag. I'm not saying booze is the best way to recover - but - it helps me fall asleep after a 16-hour-time-zone-jump, and it makes the career answers a lot more colorful. Let's go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
I'm back at the People's Park in Zhengzhou, Yves' hometown, watching retirees be active while I lounge around and take your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
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Today I'm hanging out in the dining room, or what would normally be a dining room, but we use it to store a 1992 Honda Beat. I explain why, and then take your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. The audio on this one is a little tinny - the room is super-echo-y and I don't think the camera picked up my lapel microphone. Sorry about that!
I'm in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area today, hanging out in the triple-digit heat, to answer your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
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This week's top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento finds us opening ChatGPT multiple times! It's fun to show how I use it, and what it thinks of me.
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This isn't specifically database-related, but it's the kind of thing I'm really into, so maybe you're into it too.
I sat down with Giovana Carvalho, the Managing Director at Teachable, the e-commerce platform I use to sell training classes, and we chatted about what AI is good for these days, and where its rough edges are.
I was in Rome to attend a teaching conference, and my AirBnB had the most beautiful view overlooking Rome and Vatican City. While having my morning coffee, I went through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento - and I didn't go through many questions because some of them required really long answers, and I had a great time with those.
After the PASS Data Community Summit in Frankfurt, Germany, I headed back to Iceland and spent a few more days gallivanting around the country in a Tesla Model Y camper. (Well, "camper" is a glamorous word for it: CampEasy.com puts a mattress in the back. But still.) Today, I'm at Djúpalónssandur, a marvelous black pebble…
Prefer listening to this via podcast? Good news! You can now subscribe to Office Hours on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Index, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, and anywhere else fine podcasts are sold. One of my most favorite spots on earth is Jökulsárlón and Diamond Beach. The glacier Vatnajokull is slowly melting into the sea, and pieces…
Iceland has some pretty famous waterfalls, from Þórufoss and Skógafoss in Game of Thrones, to Háifoss in Stranger Things, to Dettifoss in Prometheus, and more. However, probably the most-photographed one is Seljalandsfoss, partially because of its easy access from the Ring Road, and partially because of, uh, Justin Bieber's video for I'll Show You. That video is also a pretty good intro to the greatest hits of Iceland's south coast.
